Jays, Bullets set for title quests

Holy Name and Brandywine Heights have been playing volleyball for more than three months.

While many of their fellow student-athletes are preparing for the beginning of winter sports, they're still plugging away in a season that started when temperatures were in the 80s.

With that in mind, there's a certain art in getting ready for play in this weekend's PIAA girls volleyball state championships. As the Blue Jays and Bullets have been practicing and playing for such a long time, preparation this late in the season has become a job in itself for Holy Name coach Rick Fidler and Brandywine counterpart Mike Pienta.

"We're working on some minor adjustments," Fidler said. "The long and short of it is that you're walking a fine line between over-practice and not enough."

Luckily, both coaches are very familiar with volleyball near Thanksgiving. Both teams were state runners-up in their respective classes a year ago.

Their quests for redemption begin Friday with quarterfinal pool play. Holy Name has Class A pool play at 8 a.m. and Brandywine in Class AA will start at 9:40 a.m.

The entire tournament will be played at Central York High School.

In its pool, Holy Name will have Sacred Heart, Bishop Canevin and Clarion. Friday's other sessions are at 11 a.m. and 3:20 p.m.

Defending champion Northern Cambria, which beat the Jays in last year's final, is in the opposite pool.

Saturday, the pool winner and runner-up advance to the semifinals at 8 a.m., with the final at 1:30 p.m.

"If we show the same energy on Friday that we had last Saturday (in first-round pool play), we'll be fine," Fidler said.

The Bullets will face Southern Lehigh, Fort Leboeuf and Indiana. The two other pool play sessions are at 12:20 p.m. and 4:40 p.m. Merion Mercy, the defending champion, is in the other pool.

The AA semifinals are at 9:50 a.m. Saturday, with the final at 3:30 p.m.

Fidler said the team's success in recent years - the Jays won the PIAA title in 2008 - will be an asset.

"We have six players for us that were on the court for last year's championships," Fidler said. "The roles have changed, but they will assume their responsibilities. Several of them were around, too, when we won two years ago."

Setter Tori Hutchinson comes into the quarters with 1,221 assists on the season. She distributes the ball to a quick front line consisting of Sarah Moult, Macy Bosshard and Erin Noga, who each have more than 300 kills.

"The experience and environment are not new to them," Fidler said. "They know to get there, they need to work hard and it's not easy."

Brandywine struggled at times in its pool play last Saturday, but got the job done in sweeping past its opponents. In fact, the Bullets dominated when they were on, especially in a quick sweep of Towanda to end the long day.

Alexa Swann has been the go-to person on the net and her leaping ability and 6-2 height make her hard to stop on the attack. Still, setter Cara Bradley can look elsewhere if opponents team up on Swann. Liz Newman can spike the ball, too, as can Emily Seyler, Courtney Lucarelli and Sienna Heist.

The key for both teams will be keeping up their mojo through two potentially long days.

"At most, we have five matches left to play," Fidler said. "We'll need confidence and energy."